Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1887-06-25

Their" Let the dying rich man leave all
his wealth to his heirs, but let him not
perpetuate the Land Monopoly which
reason conSpires with experience in pro-
nouncing, prejudicial to the dearest in
tcrests of mankind. The law may say,
and should say, Take the property,
MeSsrs. heirs, and share it as you shall
agreee, or as the ministers Of Justice shall
decide; only it is decreed that none of
yon shall take and retain beyond a GER
tam limit, say $50 acres of arabic soil:
whatever falls to anyone in excess of
that must he sold within year to some
person who will still have less than the
legal maximum After few years,
this will have been entirely adjusted,
and, no man having more than the max
imum quantity, none will he restricted
in disposing of what he has; only the
man who has already as much as the
law allows him will he required, on COM
ing into possession of more, to choose
what portions of the whole, not exceed
ing the legal maximum, he will retain,
selling the residue to some one who has
no land, or less than the legal allowance,
within the term specified by law. When
population shall have grown considerably
more dense, a narrower limit may justly
be enacted, to which possessions shall be
required gradually to conform, Us we
have already seen.
might rs well despair of imprcssing
on any mind which has hitherto reflect
ed on this subject the vital importance
and vast beneiicenCe of the principle of
| Land Limitation. TO me it seems the
| very key Of the arch which is destined
to upboar the unportloned millions from
their measureleSs degradation and
Astounding misery. trace the frequent
lack of employment, the scanty reward,
corded to Labor, Directly to the resistless
influence of Land Monopoly. Here, for
example. is a new community, Just
emerging from barharism or Just planted
on virgin soil For season all goes
well with it; no man stands idle for want
Of employm mt, and Industry reaps what
it has sown. But population gradually
increases; the land is all appropriated;
and good arabic soil gradually rises in
market value from ten to one hundred
dollars per acre, and perhaps higher.
Il it not inevitable that it is now far more
difficult than formerly for the portion
less young man to buy and become his
own employer? and that he who cult
Yates as the tenant or hrelingof another
must now receive for his labor a far
smaller share of its product than Of Old
Suppose the crop Of Corn, and the aver
age yield thirty bushels to the acre,
worth fifteen dollars; one dollar of this,
or Il fifteenth part of the produce, would
have paid the rent when the land was
valued at ten dollars; but now it takes
product. But population still increases
and steadily carriesup the market value OF
land. until at length the corniield becomes
worth three hundred dollars per acre
from sheer force Of competition and ne.
cessity acting upon those who have nc
land and yet must live. Now the tenant
can no longer afford to grow Corn, UNI
less he is willing to perform all the Labor
and run all the risks of blight, hail
drouth, frost, &c, and give the entire
availS of "A full harvest for the privilege
Of cultivation. 1t seems to me impossi
bic, with Land stationary and incapable
Of increase, Ownership naturally tending
to fewer and fewer hands, and popula
ton iIlimtably increasing, that the sub
Sstence of the l.aboring Mass should mo-
become more and more meagre and pre-
carious, and their condition more and
more depressed and hopeless.